There are a number of acts that are considered authorized acts and outside the scope of practice of a registered manual osteopath (RMO) in Canada. RMOs in Canada are prohibited by law to provide any of these acts, unless they are a dual registrant with a license in another health profession that permits them to provide the acts listed below:
- Communicating a medical diagnosis identifying, as the cause of a person’s symptoms (RMOs may provide manual osteopathic diagnosis, but not a medical diagnosis),
- Moving the joints beyond a person’s usual physiological range of motion (RMO) using a high velocity, low amplitude (HVLA) thrust (called manipulation or grade V mobilization),
- Putting a finger beyond the anal verge for the purpose of manipulating or mobilizing the tailbone (coccyx),
- Inserting a finger into any body cavity except the oral cavity,
- Injection of any kind and breaking the skin, & surgery of any type,
- Prescribing any type of medication,
- Taking x-rays and offering diagnostic imaging services such as diagnostic ultrasound,
- Casting and or bracing bone fractures,
- Setting dislocated joints.
